Oscars 2012: Let Anticipation Commence

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2011/06/are-you-nauseous-yet-showbiz-pundits-are-already-hyping-oscar-season.html

I hate the oscars - the fish AND the ceremnoy

No Contagion, no credibility.

Nothing very insider-y in that article for it being from the Hollywood Reporter, alas.

Zookeeper to sweep

Interesting rule change.

There will no longer automatically be 10 Best Pic nominees; movies will only be nominated if they receive at least 5% of first-place votes. (In past years, this rule would have resulted in anywhere from 5 to 9.)

these ppl are roughly as clueless as Major League Baseball

Yeah, what's this I read this morning about Selig wanting to do away with divisions?

well, that's one of many ideas, and hardly the worst being bandied about

The only thing more annoying than 5 extra best picture nominees is 2 more best picture nominees.

This is like FDR trying to pack the Supreme Court.

in terms of what's had theatrical runs in NYC, this year kicks 2010's ass, but somehow I don't see Film Socialisme and Certified Copy getting nom's

so, Eddie Murphy.

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/09/06/eddie_murphy_2012_oscar_host

DEMAND THE CARDIGAN
(actually one of the most refreshing host outfits ever)

http://cdn3.iofferphoto.com/img/item/186/262/238/mtv-video-music-awards-1985-vmas-2nd-annual-second-9ad38.jpg

Eddie Murphy...(checks calendar)...because Gabe Kaplan was busy, presumably.

Weird choice.

so, saved from Brett Ratner

I hadn't realized that Gil Cates had kicked it.

Was going to hate to have to boycott for reasons not related to shitty nomination choices.

Eddie's out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/09/eddie-murphy-out-as-oscar-host_n_1084419.html

Wasn't looking forward to rehearsals i guess

omen of a bad Oscars (maybe Harry Potter the Last will win BP)

Resignation is for fags.

Murphy should've offered to do the whole job as Mama Klump.

He probably demanded to do it as Norbit.

"Best Oscars Ever"
-Armond White

Was looking forward to the hoodie + black tie ensemble.

This just keeps getting better.

On Tuesday evening, (academy president) Sherak tried to salvage something by casting Mr. Ratner’s resignation as a teachable moment. “It is our sincere belief — as well as Brett’s — that this terrible event may ultimately raise awareness and yield some good,” Mr. Sherak wrote in an e-mail sent directly to the academy’s approximately 6,000 members.

"this terrible event"

Sherak thinks the Penn State football staff just quit the Oscars.

Joe Paterno for Oscar host.

This whole thing is slouching toward the return of Billy Crystal. Would prefer Albert Brooks.

Crash for Oscar host.

Would prefer Albert Brooks.

^ THIS

Someone has apparently started a "Muppets for 2012 Oscar Host(s)" group on fb. I could get behind that.

Statler & Waldorf, like Ricky Gervais, too edgy

Liked.

If not the Muppets themselves, at least Joanna Newsom and Chris Cooper.

The entire Oscars telecast should be claymation. Live claymation. It would be a seven week telecast.

Let anticipation shrivel up.

hey, we haven't even mentioned the new producer.

The only time I ever want to see BC in an Oscarcast again is as part of the in memorium segment.

(yes, I just SB'd myself for that.)

It's Crystal.

I am listening to Crystal sing about "Seabiscuit" to the tune of "Goldfinger" atm

Oh, it's about Pete Rose now.

He just scatted about Master and Commander.

*sigh*

Oscars 2012: Back to the Catskills

Can someone tell me why The Descendants is being rated so highly by all the Oscar prognosticators? Payne's record at the Oscars is mixed, and I wouldn't necessarily think that a family dramedy like this is an automatic lock with voters. I've seen the trailer. Is it just because of golden boy George Clooney?

Same reason every Major Autumn Clooney Star Vehicle is promoted.

Oh, I get why it's promoted. I'm just skeptical that it's truly a powerhouse contender.

There's a scene where he talks to his comatose wife. /serious

Talks or (spoiler) berates?

I aint seen it.

Maybe Jodie Foster could get a Carnage nomination for playing a Brooklyn lib version of MTM in Ordinary People for laughs? and looking like hell doing it?

NAHHHHH

Can someone tell me why The Descendants is being rated so highly by all the Oscar prognosticators?

Maybe in part because Sideways has endured and Payne hasn't made a film since then.

Lifetime achievement to James Earl Jones (as he admits, he's primarily a theater actor) and Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Oprah.

http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2011/11/james-earl-jones-oprah-winfrey-set-for-honorary-oscars.html

So, no complaints when the only nonwhite acting nominee(s?) play maids.

qualifying Animated Shorts:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/shorts/list-of-45-oscar-qualifying-shorts.html

Smart time for Pitt to mention possibly retiring...

I don't know if Matt Damon has a longshot nomination possibility for the Cameron Crowe film, but it would make the Best Actor race look like Ocean's 14.

I'm surprised he's not getting a supporting role push for Contagion

God I want to marry Mark Harris. Too bad he's already married to T.Kush.

I'm surprised he's not getting a supporting role push for Contagion

Damon is listed for this on their industry ads and the film's screener, and anything's possible after Invictus.

None of the '70s segments are online, but still best Oscar prognosticator ever:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/270902/saturday-night-live-bill-murray

Did you get that screener already? Must be in the pkg I couldn't pick up.

Yes. And yesterday Weinstein's.

Foreign Oscar omen? A Separation director's first name is Asghar.

Oooh, that's a good piece of Oscar trivia: Who's the only Oscar winner named Oscar?

I always either get them later than you or not at all.

I know it wasn't Oscar Homolka or the Stallone comedy. ....Levant? for music?

Is there going to be a long list for qualifying live shorts?

I hope this one makes the list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTzm3knkjzg

I know it wasn't Oscar Homolka or the Stallone comedy. ....Levant? for music?

Close: Hammerstein.

oh, duh

Whereas Tony Curtis and Tony Randall and Tony Kushner...

And Grammy Davis Jr.

poor Tedi Baxter

Emmy Rossum will have to cross her fingers next year on a nomination for Shameless.

Good news, tho, for NYFCC Pounder.

er, I meant, Peniston

or, if he decides to act, Obie Trice

so....

http://www.deadline.com/2011/11/oscars-15-documentary-features-make-academys-first-cut/

I suspect Pina or Bill Cunningham NY could be nominated, tho neither has the crucial social-issue cred.

social-issue cred is what made The Interrupters seem like a lock.

Also no Senna. RIP America's F1 revival.

When Steve James spoke in Toronto last month, he told an amazing story about what a godsend it was to Hoop Dreams not to be nominated for an Academy Award. The distributor expected as much, and they had an advertising campaign all ready to go that was built around the snub; also, Ebert flipped out and went to work on behalf of the film. It was at that point that it started to take off in terms of people actually seeing it. Doubt you could pull off the same strategy in 2011--too many documentaries, less interest in the awards--but maybe they'll give it a try.

One interesting diff this year is Netflix streaming, as far as people outside NYC actually getting to see these films and root for favorites, critics to champion them, etc.

Yeah...different world.

oh yeah, makeup maestro Dick Smith got an honorary Oscar at this week's Governors Ball too.

producer Larry Gordon earned the biggest laughs of the night by recalling a party in Santa Barbara where he was amazed by Winfrey’s ability to match him in downing tequila shots. “Oprah,” he told her at the time, “you’re a f—king moose.” The other guests were horrified, but the next morning, spotting him across the room, Winfrey defused the situation by throwing her arms open wide and proclaiming, “Baby, it’s your f—king moose!” “Congratulations my dearest, darling moose,” he told her.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/academy-oprah-winfrey-governors-award-260878

shortlisted for Visual Effects:

– “Captain America: The First Avenger”
– “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″
– “Hugo”
– “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”
– “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”
– “Real Steel”
– “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”
– “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
– “The Tree of Life”
– “X-Men: First Class”

I'm guessing this will be a list of three, not five. Might be hard for ToL to get in for its four or five shots of dinos.

The Apes have it

don't forget Chastain flying

i think hugo's gonna win all the technical awards, on behalf of its conspicuousness

couldn't really find a better thread to put this on (also not sure who this guy is who posted this): http://twitter.com/#!/rubinbooty/status/154693867097169920

J Hoberman laid off?

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2012/01/4888064/film-critic-j-hoberman-out-village-voice

I'm not a Hoberman. I'm a hobo, man.

Film Comment intern Paul Brunick on the current state of film criticism

Probably the most approp thread.

That's awful. Always thought he's about the fairest critic around--i.e., he always seems to go out of his way to identify what's good in a film, even when there's not much there. And for a guy who knows so much, and who is grounded in the whirlwind of the '60s, he engages you, he writes out of enthusiasm, rather than pedantically--he makes you want to see some obscure Harry Smith film you've never heard of. I saw him introduce The Manchurian Candidate once, just after The Dream Life came out.

Okay, sorry--didn't see the previous post.

Will one of you email Nathaniel and ask him to update his Film Experience prediction index? thnkx

phaps he is waiting for all the guild things this week.

HE SAID HE WOULD UPDATE JAN. 1. I haven't slept a wink since.

are they still doing 10 best pic noms so they can find a spot for breaking dawn?

it's *up to* ten, but I think 5% of the membership has to rate it as their #1. I think Bridesmaids will get the slob spot over Harry Potter the Last.

Alfred, it's a full life.

HE SAID HE WOULD UPDATE JAN. 1. I haven't slept a wink since.

Tapley has new predictions for the new year. I think the GoldDerby predix are fairly up to date as well.

I'm not a Hoberman. I'm a hobo, man.

― polyphonic, Wednesday, 4 January 2012 23:12 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^ lol

hey, at least it's still more significant than the presidential election.

Suggested title?

The Least Consequential in History

haha – Morbs' post WAS the title.

btw I wdn't be surprised to see DiCaprio slide off the list, unless he's the new Jack Lemmon.

all the FilmExp pix are updated:

http://thefilmexperience.net/prediction-index/

so dire

Woody Allen
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Michael Haznavicius
THE ARTIST
Terence Malick
THE TREE OF LIFE
Alexander Payne
DESCENDANTS
Martin Scorsese
HUGO

this year's theme: wistfulness

Haven't seen Hugo but, oy, the rest.

so does George Kuchar make the In Memoriam montage? that's what I'll be watching for.

just when you think he's out, they pull him back in.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2012/01/oscar-2012-nomination-predictions-visual-effects/

the cgi in The Tree of Life was crap

Ebert thinks Apes will be nominated for best picture... lol?

http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2012/01/the_2012_oscar_lalapalooza.html

He also writes that foreign-lang films are ineligible for BP. Not formally, no? Unless they've recently put habit into the rules.

Going back a bit but Crouching Tiger was nominated for Best Picture

I was gonna say, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Slumdog Millionaire? c'mon Ebert

One point of contention is the lack of consideration of non-English language films for categories other than Best Foreign Language Film. Very few foreign language films have been nominated for any other categories, regardless of artistic merit. To date, only eight foreign language films (and three partly foreign language films) have been nominated for Best Picture: Grand Illusion (French, 1938); Z (French, 1969); The Emigrants (Swedish, 1972); Cries and Whispers (Swedish, 1973); Il Postino (Italian/Spanish, 1995); Life Is Beautiful (Italian, 1998); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Mandarin Chinese, 2000); and Letters from Iwo Jima (Japanese, 2006), which was ineligible for the Best Foreign Language Oscar because it was an American production. The only partly foreign language films to win Best Picture are The Godfather Part II (English/Sicilian, 1974), The Last Emperor (English/Mandarin, 1987) and Slumdog Millionaire (English/Hindi, 2008).

oh man, i'd forgotten about Life Is Beautiful

I know they've been nominated in the past; I thought Rog was aware that lately 99% of the best films just happen to come from the English-speaking world.

I was going to list is but then couldn't remember if it had been nominated for Best Picture. Since I'm like the only person here who didn't hate it, I should have stuck to my guns.

If they're counting BP nominees that were partly in foreign languages, they should count Star Wars. It was partly in Huttese with English subtitles.

Ebert is kind of dumb about the Oscars.

btw I think Viola Davis is getting Best Actress. Streep will be nominated most years til she dies, has plenty of time for a third.

Plus, not to get all S4sh4 St0n3 about it, but The Iron Lady's a pretty impossible movie to get enthusiastic over.

I just hope poor V.D. gets a film role that's a patch on her stage career, someday.

I hope PS Hoffman gets a Best Supporting Actor nom for Moneyball.

no way, Jonah Hill maybe

I love how the two roles he's played for Bennett Miller are absolute opposites. It's like Jake LaMotta and Rupert Pupkin.

I like PSH as much as the next guy ut that is such a nothing role. All he has to do his look vaguely disgruntled

if he had played Art Howe like Capote it wd've been a lot more entertaining

Eric, you can relax; Pitt's not winning Best Actor.

I wish I could rejoice. Now I have to bitch about the tonal inversion going on in best actress.

To the tune of: I would've been fine with any of the previous three Streep nods resulting in a cheap/easy career win because in each case she was a good-humored defibrillator, enlivening dull or worse movies. In this case, she sinks with the ship.

Eric, you can relax; Pitt's not winning Best Actor.

I think Clooney's the front runner, but I would not be surprised to see Pitt or Dujardin.

When Dujardin started tap-dancing on stage during the Globes, I could practically hear Weinstein yelling at him, "I told you to climb up on some chairs when you did that!"

no way, Jonah Hill maybe

He probably will, but it is so wrong in every way that I can't even.

The dog in the Artist would be a more deserving winner than Jonah Hill.

The dog in the Artist would be a more deserving winner than Bark Obama.

The dog in Beginners would be shot by Alfred.

Foreign shortlist of nine includes A Separation and Pina, dumps Le Havre and Boonmee:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2012/01/academy-shorlists-nine-foreign-oscars-language-films.html

Beginners is the dog that needs to be shot.

Eric OTM about Streep.

Good for Bullhead. Much as I'd like to support the home team, I wasn't exactly bowled over by Mr. Lazhar.

Cosmo > Uggie

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/oscar-dogs-uggie-from-the-artist_n_1154162.html

Uggie's the one trying to bite the head of Oscar.

Eric, I still think DiCaprio (or maybe Fassbender) is going down. And I think Pitt "stretched" more here than in Benjamin Button, plus there's added value for ToL.

Nathaniel in process of updating --- calling Refn for best director?

http://thefilmexperience.net/prediction-index

^I'm pretty sure that would be the worst best picture lineup ever.

He's also rooting for this for Best Song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm0kdA9ii3o

wow, the factories are trying to go 'smart' with comicbook movies now, huh

I can't imagine Refn in the director lineup at all.

If it's assumed that Hazanavicius, Scorsese, Payne, and Allen are locks, I'd expect that it's Malick and Fincher fighting over that 5th slot.

And Spielberg!

I mean, Refn is no higher than 8th. It wouldn't surprise me if Tate Taylor got more votes.

Bullhead is such a great movie. I really do hope it makes a chance. Although I doubt it'll win. Mathias Schoenaerts is one of my favourite belgian actors (in part cause he played in dEUS' Tom Barman debut movie. lol)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrIyAQaBd-Y

The Artist
The Descendants
Hugo
The Help
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball

^I'm pretty sure that would be the worst best picture lineup ever.

There were too many worthless lineups in the '50s for this to be true, but this would definitely be a contender for worst lineup in the two decades I've been paying attention.

Eric, I still think DiCaprio (or maybe Fassbender) is going down

But really, for who? I guess it would be Bichir over Shannon, if the Crash contingency comes out in full force. (Haven't watched A Better Life. Just guessing.)

No, this is the worst of my lifetime;

Apollo 13
Babe
Il Postino
Sense and Sensibility

You forgot the winner, which was worse than any of the other four nominees by a long stretch.

(Babe > anything in the running this year except Tree of Life)

I couldn't even type the winner's name.

and yes about Babe.

I still call this:

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Lost in Translation
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Mystic River
Seabiscuit

the biggest nadir of the ones I followed, though 1999's lineup was more crushingly disappointing given what was in the mix.

The first four are watchable.

I may have to put this to a poll.

Master and Commander is awes

M&C is the only one I'd watch right now.

I may have to put this to a poll.

We've got a few Worst Oscar threads kickin' around. Feel free to add one.

Those are all for individual movies, tho, right? I'd poll the worst best picture lineup.

WORST of the Best Picture Oscar Noms (Only The '80s Edition)

Yeah, I'm just talking cumulative terribleness.

1995's slate IS pretty terrible on the whole, despite having one pretty good movie in it.

The Descendants is a 2.5-star film, the other likely nominees all look like 2s to me. Babe and Sense and Sensibility are both 3s.

I think Shannon will be nom'd btw

American Beauty - zero stars
The Cider House Rules - zero stars
The Green Mile - negative nine stars
The Insider - 2.5 stars
The Sixth Sense - 2 stars

Not buying the surge for Shannon. Take Shelter not nearly on Oscar's radar in the same way Revolutionary Road was.

If anyone's toppling that five, it'll be Bichir.

hahaha

I quite liked The Sixth Sense, for similar reasons to thinking Starman is John Carpenter's best film.

never remotely willing to subject myself to The Cider House Rules or The Green Mile.

I love The Insider but aside from that it is pretty grim.

so when is Michael Mann gonna put Gosling in a gray wig btw?

I've only seen Marty (I do want to see Picnic), but '55 sure looks like a contender: Marty, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, Picnic, The Rose Tatoo. Even with Ford's involvement with Mister Roberts, do any of those have much stature today? Anyway, I think it would be a good thread.

Mister Roberts is an entertaining movie, way too high a bar these days

and I just threw your stinking palm tree overboard.

so when is Michael Mann gonna put Gosling in a gray wig btw?

Tres Collateral.

I don't know--as you move towards the middle, I think older films tend to get an easier pass on what is or isn't entertaining. (Not talking about Mister Roberts, just in general.)

Even The Artist is "entertaining," if that's what we're gonna do here.

I laughed about 10x more at Mr Roberts

ie drop the quotes, Eric

Marty, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, Picnic, The Rose Tatoo

man all Don Draper could do to market these is place Bill Holden's bulging pecs at the center of the poster.

Mister Roberts was an adap of a long-running Broadway hit when that mattered, so, no

I guess what was entertaining to people in their childhood remains entertaining to them in their adulthood.

then why did I give up on chasing women?

You're repressing. There's nothing more fun than chasing down women.

You know what's even more entertaining and Oscar nominated? Watching Jennifer Jones fall out of an elevator at 108 stories.

Tho this was robbed, according to Pauline Kael:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oWohy-jTYk

Marty is great! Also one of the few to win both Best Pic and the Palme.

apparently the only other one is The Lost Weekend, and between them there's no contest.

Pauline Kael hated Marty. I myself don't understand that habit of adapting TV plays into films in the '50s.

Jennifer Jones is really quite something in Cluny Brown.

Cluny Brown is one of my favorite movies, the only cinematic equivalent to one of those daft Wodehouse comedies; about time it got a DVD release.

Marty isn't completely unwatchable, but it did help me understand how something like The Blind Side could get a Best Picture nomination in 2010.

I saw Marty about 25 years ago and thought it was okay.

If you followed through on Eric's poll idea, I think there'd be two ways you could approach any given year. Some people would look at the five or ten nominees and average them out as a group. I'd instead begin by automatically ruling out any year that had at least one great film. Example: 1990 had Ghost, Godfather III, Awakenings, and Dances with Wolves--but it also had Goodfellas, which is worth more to me than whatever the other four nominees were.

2008 fails miserably on those grounds. Milk, Frost/Nixon, Benjamin Button, Reader and Slumdog Millionaire.

Button not great but very very interesting with great bits. Weird enough to qualify as an good Best Picture nominee at least.

Reader one of the worst noms of all time tho

And Slumdog one of the worst winners.

2008 was the slate that, of course, resulted in the 10-deep experiment. They should've, instead, done some sort of Grammy-style overhaul.

slumdog was cool, so was milk

Yeah, both those were OK. I refuse to blame either for allowing The Blind Side as a BP nominee one year later.

Slumdog was a crapfest nearly equal to Crash

Nearly equal only in that Citizen Kane is a crapfest nearly equal to Crash.

In other words, the expanse that covers "nearly equal" is so statistically irrelevant based on the wide gulf of quality that to offer any comparison to any other movie is entirely meaningless. To contemplate that gulf is to tumble headlong into total, all-consuming nihilism.

As we speak, Godwin's law is being updated to swap Nazism for Crash's best picture win.

http://hitchcockfilmsurvey.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/trippy-james-stewart-vertigo.jpg

so Nathaniel is predicting Shannon sneaking past Fassbender, I guess bcz they fear the cock.

If his supporting actress picks come through, they'll have 1 previous monination between them. I wonder if that's ever happened, and I wonder who would know?

Eric, did you pick the Should Be Nominateds in your categories or did Ed?

I think I know the answer to the question but jaymc will beat me.

re supporting actress tyros

Feel like there have been slates of all first-time nominees. (Would've happened a LOT in the last decade alone were it not for Cate f'n Blanchett.)

(Anyway, 1996's slate had I think only one previous nomination: Joan Allen's.)

Eric, did you pick the Should Be Nominateds in your categories or did Ed?

It was usually a combination of all 3 of us.

1985's slate all first-timers, I think.

if the no-hope-of-winning Shannon gets in then the actor noms won't be so disgraceful (I like Pitt more than Morbs though).

If his supporting actress picks come through, they'll have 1 previous monination between them. I wonder if that's ever happened, and I wonder who would know?

Looks like 1999 was the last time.

Sorry: I mean, 1999 was the last time there were NO previous nominations.

YES

Kurt @THDN calling 8 BP nominees (dunno, I have no idea how to do this math):

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2012/01/oscar-2012-nomination-predictions-picture/

Common sense says with hundreds of films eligible, only a very small handful would reach above 5 percent. Then again, with only a dozen or so movies actually "in contention," maybe all of them can reach that threshold.

I think it's probably correct to guess closer to 10 than to 5.

gotta love the film that's first alphabetically:

http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/rules/reminderlist.html

am i really gonna wake up at 5:15 to watch this announcement

ooooh, of all years, no

Glad to be CST on Oscar nod morning.

glad to be in transit

i think if im honest with myself the only reason i watch the Oscars is the hopes of seeing cleavage.

Suddenly the In Contention blog is picking Oldman/Shannon over DiCaprio/Fassbender.

possibly just out of boredom.

I will probly only click my heels if Swinton is bypassed.

Who clicks their heels?

Anyway, regardless of what you think of the movie, Swinton is better than pretty much anyone else in the running in that category.

No, I'm not going to waste bandwidth on why I'm disgusted w/ Screaming Lobster of Bosnia's chief of staff signing up. And I'm not commenting on Team Hope's results til the 100 days are up. Ta ta!

― Dr Morbius, Monday, January 5, 2009 12:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i like to read that imagining morbius spinning on his heel, opening up an umbrella and walking away

― jordan s (J0rdan S.), Tuesday, January 6, 2009 10:38 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the heroine of a movie you gave 3 stars to? xxp

nuh uh, at least I made it through My Week with Marilyn.

spinning vs clicking

They're both incredibly #gaytantrum.

unless you're Dick Van Dyke or a chimney sweep.

Troll in time.

clicking is an expression of joy! File for that special occasion.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2075065_heel-click.html

If it weren't for schadenfreude, you would cease to exist at all.

yeah, I feed on hatred btwn the Federation and the Klingons

alarms set, everyone?

Yeah, I get up around 7:15 anyway.

Let's do this.

McCarthy for Bridesmaids

Von Sydow for Extremely Loud

Rooney Mara for Dragon Tattoo

Demian Bichir for A Better Life

Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor

Terrence Malick for Tree of Life

Margin Call for orig. screenplay

(I'm just posting what I consider mild surprises.)

Best Pic:

War Horse
The Artist
Moneyball
The Descendants
The Tree of Life
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Hugo
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

looooool

Drive shut out, even Brooks

I guess the biggest snubs are Tilda Swinton and Albert Brooks.

Oh wait, it had a sound-editing nom. -xpost

hallelujah xp

Only two nominees for Best Song:

Music (Original Song)
"Man or Muppet" from THE MUPPETS
Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie

“Real in Rio” from RIO
Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown
Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Sorry, Glenn Close.

No Reznor/Finch score nom for Dragon Tattoo (v. good minus the Karen O. single).

Siedah Garrett of "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" fame?

Drive got NO nominations?

I haven't seen the movie, but I've listened to the Dragon Tattoo score, and it didn't seem as distinctive as their Social Network score.

Drive got NO nominations?

Let's be honest, Brooks was the only one that was really a possibility.

She's sung background on a zillion songs.

Drive got a sound-editing nomination, but that's it.

Costume Design
Anonymous
Lisy Christl

The Artist
Mark Bridges

Hugo
Sandy Powell

Jane Eyre
Michael O'Connor

W.E.
Arianne Phillips

Lots missing from Best Documentary:
Documentary Feature
Hell and Back Again
Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky

Pina
Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel

Undefeated
TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Jonah Hill got nominated for PURPOSELY being an unfunny miserable fuck this time.

Siedah Garrett of "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" fame?

Yes! The song is catchy (I can't tell you how many times I've watched this movie, it's sad), but I don't know if it's exactly Oscar worthy. Otoh, I would say that about 80% of these nominees, so.

By # of nominations:

11
Hugo

10
The Artist

6
Moneyball
War Horse

5
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

4
The Help

3
Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Midnight in Paris
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon
The Tree of Life

2
Bridesmaids
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Iron Lady
My Week with Marilyn
A Separation

The Tree of Life got the same number of nominations as the Transformers. :/

Very much surprised and happy Tree of Life got three big nods, although I don't like it as much as The New World which was brutally ignored/panned by everyone but that's neither here nor there.

Lots missing from Best Documentary:

Of the 15 films on the shortlist, Buck, Bill Cunningham New York, Project Nim, and We Were Here all missed out on a nod. But the real surprise was the films that didn't even make the shortlist (both Herzogs, The Interrupters).

hallelujah xp

Fuck you, bitch.

Then again, what do I care. This is an organization that will apparently give Stephen Daldry movies nominations even if no one in the entire world likes them.

Also, would've been fun for The Tree of Life to get that odd director out slot with a 5-deep BP slate. Oh well.

Kinda sucks for Albert Brooks to have been the only really super old guy to get nudged out in favor of Jonah Hill.

Jonah Hill as The Driver would've bee. fun.

There is nothing about that human excrement that is fun.

xpost Delivering criminals, pizzas.

I guess Shailene Woodley is a minor snub, but that category was always 7 women competing for 5 slots. (Redgrave's omission was a bit more expected.)

@SeriousFilm Another year, another brilliant Tilda Swinton performance snubbed. That makes three in a row for those keeping score.

Oldman in best actor, though, is all kinds of awesome.

was tilda actually any good in that film i can't remember. i sorta thought she was just on autopilot, or maybe it was difficult to untangle a performance from the mess of foreboding direction that was that entire movie.

He is great in that movie. xp

lol

Tilda on autopilot is by definition better than anyone else currently acting.

The scene where she talks to the Jehovah's witnesses alone is worth everything George Clooney's ever done on film.

fuck me I will not watch Glenn Close playing anything that isn't the Marquise de Merteuil.

Oldman in best actor, though, is all kinds of awesome

The only thing I liked other than McCarthy's nod.

Those are the two I liked! Well, that and the muppet song.

There's actually a ton for me to like this year, including the first time in all sorts of recent memory that my #1 movie of the year was also BP nominated.

you guys, for the rest of his career Jonah Hill is going to be "Academy-Award nominated actor Jonah Hill"

the next movie he does where he beats up a child for lols, that will be in the promos

maybe he'll start crashing standup sets at Sundance if he wins

Also, is this the first year that Pixar was shut out of the best animated feature film? Cars 2 was such a violent piece of shit that it would have made me angry if it had been nominated.

you guys, for the rest of his career Jonah Hill is going to be "Academy-Award nominated actor Jonah Hill"

I hate you so much right now. My only consolation is that he might bring his sister as his date again so I can make more Jack and Jill jokes.

Oldman was a bore, which admittedly is better than usual for him.

I usually like Swinton, but she was too bad even for Oscar in this one. (Also confused some voters who thought she was Eddie Redmayne.)

Amazed that more Oscarbloggers couldn't smell the decomposition off DiCaprio as Hoover.

OK, Tintin left off best animated feature? Explanation? The animators hate motion-capture that much? Was Polar Express treated similarly?

Most animators loathe mo-cap, in my experience.

No one I saw predicted Tintin would be left off the list, though.

Andy Serkis also upset a lot of animators in lobbying for an acting nod by claiming they did little work and he was almost entirely responsible for the performance in The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. And since he was also a lead in Tin Tin, it could have been their fuck you to him.

the only BP nod i thought was really good was War Horse

i knew kristen wiig wouldnt get a nom even though she gave the best female performance in 2011, but i wouldnt ever have guessed melissa mccarthy would get a supporting nomination. she was good but c'mon. wiig.

i didnt see beginners but nolte shd win best supporting

animators do despise mocap.

The best nomination, aside from those for A Separation and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, is "Man or Muppet."

AlbertBrooks And to the Academy: "You don't like me. You really don't like me."

Kind of lol but mostly sad.

"Man or Muppet" isn't very lol as a song in itself.

no, but it's not by Elton John at least

I sort of want all categories to have the same setup as song, where if there's not enough enthusiasm to merit 5 nominees, then there aren't 5.

Though I think 5 should be the max in all cats.

xp yeah me too. altho i think it's pretty outrageous there aren't 5 decent songs, or not 5 that the Academy consider decent enough i mean.. come on there must be.

If there are only two nominees in a category, I say suspend voting and let them win via televised cage match.

The 60s are truly truly over when there are 5 VFX nods and only 2 song nods.

but since Meryl Streep can get nominated for doing an impression of a prime minister, the '30s are back. She's the new George Arliss.

she's closer to Paul Muni.

btw fully expecting a Scorsese BD win for a film even worse than The Departed.

Gasp, even ... worse? How is that even possible?

Georges Melies < Infernal Affairs

Got up late this morning only to nearly choke to death on my cereal when I read Jonah Hill's name.

really, who thought there'd ever be an acting nominee who shat in a sink and it wouldn't be him?

some right sentimental old horseshit in this year's list.

i.e. a Streep nomination

By # of nominations:

11
Hugo

10
The Artist

newsflash: movie industry really likes "love letters to cinema"

i wouldnt ever have guessed melissa mccarthy would get a supporting nomination.

Then you haven't been paying attention.

really wish my "tv vs. movies" thread wasn't on the sandbox so i could post this list of nominees and get an admin to lock the thread

yeah, i haven't! i cant remember the last time i watched the 'scars, let alone ~followed the buzz~

xp

jaymc you've been really sassy lately. did you get a sass infusion at the doctor

really wish my "tv vs. movies" thread wasn't on the sandbox so i could post this list of nominees and get an admin to lock the thread

lol Oscars as a barometer of quality cinema, good job, librarian!

Sass-jection

ps "certified copy" was awful too

http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/obama-satan.jpg

I have my issues with Obama, but if he's good enough for Satan, he's got my vote.

http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/obama-satan.jpg

Also worthy of note: Jim Rash (the dean from Community) is now an Oscar nominee.

Wrong thread....?

Oh jesus, wrong thread!

extremely loud and incredibly close?

xxxpost

Which makes at least four Groundlings receiving nominations this year.

kinda surprised they didn't throw a nom to tinker tailor soldier spy

like ELAIC is about as well-loved as 'i am sam' it seems

ps "certified copy" was awful too

yer not so hot yerself

at least 9 nominees suggests Billy Crystal will pass out at the end of his 'theme song' medley and never return.

yer not so hot yerself

Such a great comeback, nom this guy tbh.

why 9 best pic noms and not 10?

Yeah that was my question too. Also why only two song noms?

cuz the 10th choice might've been a really good film. (need to be the #1 of 5% of voters) xp

Such a great comeback, nom this guy tbh.

It's not my fault that "Fuck you, bitch" was already used today.

man jaymc is all kinds of feisty this weekend

― Jean-Luc Gohard (some dude), Saturday, January 14, 2012 1:05 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's been a long sassy weekend

could jaymc have hired Billy Crystal's writers?

Ha, well, that weekend I was ... intoxicated.

Today I'm just being a dick because not everyone has been obsessively tracking the Oscar race like I have.

Nolte was terrible in Warrior.

I'd never even heard of Warrior until Nolte started getting awards buzz.

He hasn't given an award-worthy performance since Clean.

what if Seeking the Monkey King had gotten awards buzz?

I'm glad von Sydow got a make-up nomination after being passed over for The Seventh Seal and Strange Brew.

he got a nom for Pelle in '88.

you're mad, Roger Ebert has made it clear that foreign films aren't eligible for anything.

he's not in a position to say anything

Pretty low.

Nolte was terrible in Warrior.

― encarta it (Gukbe), Tuesday, January 24, 2012 12:33 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

motherfucker!

nolte's grebt in warrior. now von sydow's a guy who's been mummified for years

Movies I'd honestly never heard of until today:

A Better Life
Albert Nobbs
A Cat In Paris
Chico & Rita

Movies I've heard the name of, but couldn't tell you a thing about them:

Warrior
Margin Call
Puss In Boots

WARRIOR was really sneaky-good, esp if you have a weakness for man-movie schmaltz like i do. i think most people ignored it because 'mma movie' usually denotes the lowest quality crap you can imagine

Movie I'm mildly annoyed by now feeling obligated to watch:

Moneyball

Movie I'm majorly annoyed by now feeling obligated to watch:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Wondering if I should now feel the obligation to watch, even though I didn't really want to:

The Beginners
Bridesmaids
The Ides of March

(also, add My Week With Marilyn to that last list)

see Beginners, shitcan the rest

The delightful Mark Harris:

The Artist is Mitt Romney — desperate to please, doesn’t stand for anything in particular, not especially popular with the general public, will eventually keep most of its money offshore, and, though dinged up and trash-talked, will probably cross the finish line first by default. The Descendants is Newt Gingrich (emotionally unsteady, hard on wives, doing better than expected, but probably can’t go all the way). Hugo is Rick Santorum (a little slow, doesn’t really like anything that changed in the culture in the last 80 years). And The Tree of Life is Jon Huntsman (believes in evolution, probably a little too classy for this field).

Bridesmaids is great!

i completely ignored Beginners when it was out and now everyones talkin about it like its a thing

Harris missed a golden Ron Paul:The Help line there

See Bridesmaids. Ignore Extremely Loud and Marilyn for sure.

2nd viewing of Bridesmaids made me appreciate its take on how class differences can strain friendships.

2nd viewing of Bridesmaids also made me appreciate its take on what ladyfarts sound like.

Ladyfarts = a better title for the Thatcher movie

also ppl making a list of what to see from a trade show = insane

Love Mark Harris.

I keep my own list of what I wanna see going throughout the year (mostly cause someone as poor as I can't afford to go to the theatre much) and, to date, all of the films mentioned above are the ones I hadn't previously added to it.

Only added Moneyball and Extremely Loud so far. Ladyfarts (as it will now be exclusively referred to by me) looks so much like something I wouldn't like, but which I'll probably wind up seeing at someone's house or something that I think I'll just wait for that to happen rather than seeking it out on my own.

My favored films that were eligible for Best Picture:

Certified Copy
Of Gods and Men
Le Havre
Mysteries of Lisbon (ppl in LA sit for that long?)
A Dangerous Method

total nominations: 0

"Bridesmaids" and "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" were my favorites of the... 4? movies I saw last year (lol)

of gods and men was france's 2010 submission iirc

My favored films that were eligible for Best Picture:

Certified Copy
Of Gods and Men
Le Havre
Mysteries of Lisbon (ppl in LA sit for that long?)
A Dangerous Method

total nominations: 0

Just get a shirt made already.

WARRIOR was really sneaky-good, esp if you have a weakness for man-movie schmaltz like i do. i think most people ignored it because 'mma movie' usually denotes the lowest quality crap you can imagine

Aside from being far too long, I really enjoyed WARRIOR. I just thought Nolte was awful in it.

Is the Brit voting contingent of the Academy that tiny that they can't Tinker Tailor a Best picture nod when they seem to be dishing it out? BAFTA seemed to loved it.

Wouldn't it be lovely to Dujardin, Bejo, von Syndow and Mara all won - the most silent winners ever?

It gives me such pleasure to love Beginners.

never heard of any of those movies Morbz, got any reviews of those up anywhere

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was better than all of the BP nominees.

of gods and men was france's 2010 submission iirc

it was, nevertheless, eligible for Best Picture THIS year. Freaky, huh?

Tinker Tailor was an upscale Brit nostalgia trip. If only Smiley had a stuttering problem...

re: Tinker Tailor - it has been so shafted this awards season (other than the BAFTAs) that garnering those nominations it did is something of a surprise. shocking that it didn't get a best editing nod imo. but really not the usual Brit fare.

Shakey: I don't know much about Morbius's middle three, apart from having heard the titles, but Certified Copy is Kiarostami, and A Dangerous Method is Cronenberg.

I thought Of Gods and Men wasn't eligible. Thanks for clearing that up, Morbz, even if you followed it up by underplaying Tinker Tailor's value.

it was, nevertheless, eligible for Best Picture THIS year. Freaky, huh?

Yeah, this happened with City of God, iirc.

Mysteries of Lisbon is Raul Ruiz and is sitting in my Netflix Queue. I'm gutted to have missed Le Havre in cinemas. Of Gods and Men is very worth seeing.

Mysteries of Lisbon is pretty good and the kind of costume drama the Motion Picture Academy would/should honor.

Lambert Wilson in Of Gods and Men would have a nomination if they recognized the film at all. He was all really good in the very pleasurable Princess of Montpensier.

also*

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was better than all of the BP nominees.

srsly

AND it wasn't that good.

certified copy is kiarostami?

*shoves DVD back on shelf*

just kidding, i'll watch it

rise of the planet of the apes seemed a more generic than an "apes" film should be imo, though it was solid enough.

the real crime against cinema is the lack of BP nom for mission: impossible: ghost: protocol

It gives me such pleasure to love Beginners.

This morning I e-mailed your review to a friend who said he was "saddened by the lack of love" shown to Beginners by AMPAS.

Mysteries of Lisbon is pretty much the opp of what I think of when I hear "costume drama"

Thanks for clearing that up, Morbz, even if you followed it up by underplaying Tinker Tailor's value.

Morbs is actually incapable of handing anything a compliment without serving it via slap. Case in point.

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was better than all of the BP nominees.
srsly

― the rapacity of hope (latebloomer), Tuesday, January 24, 2012 2:28 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

AND it wasn't that good.

― Dr Morbois de Bologne (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, January 24, 2012 2:28 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

xxp (Given that Plummer was nominated, I'm not sure what he was expecting besides a screenplay nod.)

You're at your best today, Morbs, and let the SBs show.

Alfred just isn't willing to admit that the portrait of LA gays in Beginners was hardscrabble realism.

lol omar

Aside from being far too long, I really enjoyed WARRIOR. I just thought Nolte was awful in it.

― encarta it (Gukbe), Tuesday, January 24, 2012 3:18 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

i guess it was kind of a bum role, but man, i dunno. cranking the Nolte up to 11 makes any movie better. and that scene with him and hardy in the diner was so good!

i didn't think of gods and men was anything spesh. i mean its not bad either, but i thought ebert was actually pretty otm when he said that it was overly reverent of the monks, i think it could've done more interesting things with the story. one review called it the cannes equivalent of oscar bait and i didnt find that to be unfair either

certified copy is rote boring art-movie garbage but binoche does look good in it

No, I'm perfectly willing to admit that growing old and gay is a lot harder in real life, especially when you don't have a dime sore Indian like "E.R." Boy at your side.

did 'of gods and men' have a trappist ale brewing scene?

Shakey: I don't know much about Morbius's middle three, apart from having heard the titles, but Certified Copy is Kiarostami, and A Dangerous Method is Cronenberg.

thx duh okay yeah I knew about the Cronenberg, which I need to see

did 'of gods and men' have a trappist ale brewing scene?

Would watch.

Mysteries of Lisbon is pretty much the opp of what I think of when I hear "costume drama"

like Dracula is pretty much the opp of what you think of as "gothic"?

I need to see Beginners. my brother was an extra in it!

I was expecting Of Gods and Men to be that kind of foreign film oscar bait but was pleasantly surprised by the way it handled everything. Not in my top 10 of the year but it was really good, and the kind of thing that I figured the Oscars might lap up that also happened to be pretty good.

Tree of Life, Tinker Tailor, and Hugo are better than Rise. It's not a terrible year of BP noms tbh but its not a very good one either.

Big ups on A Separation getting a screenplay nomination.

I felt Nolte was waaaaay overdoing it in a desperate "NOMINATE ME" kind of way. That kind of excessive Nolte-ness should only every culminate in him turning into a lightning god. xposts

"Guy at Party #13"

he's in some scene at the LA river iirc

You're at your best today, Morbs, and let the SBs show.

is this really worth it?

also Chastain nominated for the least of her four major performances this year.

xpost Being I don't engage with you about anything else, yep.

Happy to see someone else not like Certified Copy. The last 30 mins or so were so ridiculously affected that I truly cannot understand the praise heaped on this thing.

Haven't seen A Separation, and a lot of ppl seem to like it, but I'm wondering if it's screenplay nod isn't just a measure of how much the oscars seem to be listening to Ebert in the last decade.

maybe. but it's a great screenplay.

well, we like diff kinds of faggotmusik. xxp

Not doubting that. Just speculating that it's the kind of thing that would usually be completely ignored outside of the foreign category.

Partly due to the shit original screenplays for Hollywood films this year.

Its very obvious if you see the film. It has a load of twists and relies on turning the screws.

I felt Nolte was waaaaay overdoing it in a desperate "NOMINATE ME" kind of way. That kind of excessive Nolte-ness should only every culminate in him turning into a lightning god. xposts

― encarta it (Gukbe), Tuesday, January 24, 2012 3:38 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

well im glad you at least recognize how great his hulk perf is! thats an interesting point though. i do think he put everything he had into it, but im not sure if it was to get a nomination and more so people will notice him again - i get the sense that roles have simply been drying up for him the past 6-7 years and he'd just like to be back on the radar

has NN won an oscar?

Just speculating that it's the kind of thing that would usually be completely ignored outside of the foreign category.

Are you referring to something specific about A Separation, or the mere fact that it's foreign? Because it's the 10th foreign-language film to land a screenplay nomination this century. (Granted, this includes Letters from Iwo Jima.)

has NN won an oscar?

Nope -- it's his third nomination. (Prince of Tides and Affliction, iirc.)

NN was asked in a recent mag profile if he wanted to win one, he said "I can't say I don't. But I don't."

waaaaay overdoing it in a desperate "NOMINATE ME" kind of way.

vs Clooney sobbing at wife's deathbed

Also, Jer, I think you're overestimating Ebert's influence with A Separation. I know it was his #1, but it's got a 94 on Metacritic, so it's not like he's been the film's only champion.

It gives me such pleasure to love Beginners.

A-gay We Go

Oh dear lord, The Prince of Tides. Just when I had forgotten how awful it was... I still like Nick Nolte, he can't really be named for whatever the hell that was.

'the good thief' is noltster's 'slept-on' perf

he's made a ton of those that almost no one saw: Who'll Stop the Rain, Under Fire, Breakfast of Champions

who'll stop the rain is in our action movie poll, dr, i hope you plan on voting for it (i will hound u til feb 10)

Under Fire and Mother Night are my two favorites.

well im glad you at least recognize how great his hulk perf is!

especially towards the end when he turns into a morphing CGI electric starfish monster

'the good thief' is noltster's 'slept-on' perf

so otm. underrated film but I guess you can't remake Bob Le Flambeur and really win.

NN is on Luck now. Can't think of a better career decision.

vs Clooney sobbing at wife's deathbed

don't see why it can't be true for both tbh.

Clooney sobbing in boat shoes.

Nolte's the gorilla in Zookeeper, btw.

11
Hugo

10
The Artist

newsflash: movie industry really likes "love letters to cinema"

― congratulations (n/a),

think this was the thing i despised the most about both of these. esp with Hugo, so NAGL and alienating. who wants to pay $14 to get a desperately bloated overpriced pitch about how movies should be preserved because they're so inventive and magical? really actively rooting against it

yeah, movies are the worst

simon i know you can read better than that

yeah, as valentines to cinema go, those couldn't even match Bogdanovich's Nickelodeon.

think this was the thing i despised the most about both of these. esp with Hugo, so NAGL and alienating. who wants to pay $14 to get a desperately bloated overpriced pitch about how movies should be preserved because they're so inventive and magical? really actively rooting against it

The Siren disagrees

ok I admit to deliberate misreading. I found the movie sweet and inclusive rather than insider-y.

yeah i tend to have little patience for love letters to the magic of cinema.

Cinema Paradiso killed cinema-cinema for me.

I watched War Horse yesterday. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, even though it was overly earnest and schmaltzy. It recalls classic films without being tongue-in-cheek (The Artist) or didactic (Hugo) about it.

OTM

I'll drink to that.

also Dan Kois really needs to be exiled

To the pantheon of cinephiles who don't take themselves humorlessly?

Scorsese saying "picture" is one of my favorite things about him (esp since the movies got bland)

(vis a vis the Siren quote)

Ah, I was just talking about his preference for the Razzies over the Oscars.

http://whudat.de/images/oscar-nominated-movie-posters_04.jpg

http://whudat.de/images/oscar-nominated-movie-posters_08.jpg

more: http://www.whudat.de/oscar-nominated-films-too-honest-posters-14-pictures/

really disappointed in "the shiznit.co.uk" for stooping to 'total bitch'

worse, they think that pardering French slop is "pure art"

So if any film has a 3% shot at a BP upset I fear it's The Help.

paNdering

Yeah, don't underestimate the number of old, conservative, academy members who love to vote for movies that reaffirm their racial and cultural beliefs.

I don't see it happening unless substantial buzz builds in the next couple of weeks, like it did for Crash five years ago.

The Help won ensemble in part because no other film has had any many as three members of its cast recognized during awards season.

It will probably The Artist, guys.

Reposted from the other thread (re Best Actor):

Dujardin would certainly be the first winner since Benigni whose performance was afflicted with a terminal case of the cutes.

Were I a betting man, I'd put money on The Help to win.

My pics based on chatter, historical trends and precursors:

Picture: The Artist
Director: Hazashalamama
Actor: Dujardin
Actress: Davis
Supp Actress: Spencer
Supp Actor: Plummer

Yeah, I'd sign off on that.

yes, tho I still think Cloonz and Scorsese are about 50-50 and Chastain might get the trad supporting babe grope

i'm going w/ malick/tree of life for the surprise wins

Most deserving IMHO, but not a chance.

The dark horse is Scorsese.

funny that the most nominated film of the year is a 'dark horse' but yeah

Dujardin would certainly be the first winner since Benigni whose performance was afflicted with a terminal case of the cutes.

I would count Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin.

he and Hannibal Lector are in the Cute Sociopath subcategory.

so I heard of Denzel in TD, but never bothered to see that.

he came in a special Halle Berry-Sidney Poitier commemorative gift package, now available for a penny on Amazon.

But the shipping...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scorsese-blackie-20120129,0,5054454.story

way more interested in that Doris Day interview linked on the left! DORIS DAY!!!

AV Club piece on Oscar distortion ("It stinks"):

http://www.avclub.com/articles/i-likehate-the-artist-how-the-academy-awards-slant,68516/

the poster for ELAIC really did make it look like, to quote the av club's tolerability index, "home alone 4: 9/11"

http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/64740/Extremely_Loud___Incredibly_Close_2.jpg

Jessica Chastain nominated for the wrong film anyway - should have been Take Shelter

commonplace, like J Lange winning for Tootsie.

jeez, "Talk to the Animals" beat "The Look of Love"

Saw The Artist last night. Cute but c'mon.

In other words, Scott Tobias OTM.

"Cute" has become a pejorative to me, like politicians "speaking their minds."

Beginners was cute

/bait

http://www.publictechnology.net/files/siftmedia-publictech/images/lion-attack-on-zebra-ngorongoro-15204.jpeg

"Cute" has become a pejorative to me, like politicians "speaking their minds."

like the "quirky" indies of a few years back

playing "angular" guitars.

I probably say this on every Oscar thread, but I think the conspicuousness of the application of a particular facet of cinematic art – rather than any quality or aggregate goodness - is the prevailing motivator for most academy voters.

whatever it takes to torpedo Dujardin:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/oscars/9056945/Oscars-2012-The-Artists-Jean-Dujardins-chances-could-be-jeopardised-by-sexism-row-over-new-film.html

Sexist french man shockha.

lmao i just saw war horse

"Cute" has become a pejorative to me

Well, I didn't find anything about the film itself to be particularly risible. I'm fine with cute. But let's not get carried away with the praise.

In other news, I saw A Separation last weekend, and it was exceptional.

lmao WHUT? I was fine w/ War Horse after the first 30 mins, esp compared to all the other shit I had to see.

L'Express reminded readers that there had been precedents. Gérard Depardieu was widely seen to have been deprived of an Oscar in 1991 for his part in Cyrano de Bergerac after an article claiming he admitted to "taking part" in a gang rape when he was nine caused a scandal. It later transpired he had said he had "witnessed" the crime but the damage was done.

Yeah, apples and apples these controversies are...

lmao WHUT? I was fine w/ War Horse after the first 30 mins, esp compared to all the other shit I had to see.

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Thursday, February 2, 2012 11:52 AM (2 minutes ago)

yeah past the first 30 mins it was dece, got shitty when ----SPOILERS---- those dudes showed back up.

def agree that it did a good job of being a classical movie-- i kept thinking "this movie could have been made 60 years ago almost line for line shot for shot"

i actually had no idea it was Spielberg till the credits rolled

oh what kind of island bubble are you living in?

i dunno, aside from it being a horror movie, i had no idea what human centipede was about when i sat down to watch it. probably made me enjoy it a lot more!

http://thishadoscarbuzz.tumblr.com/

I've seen some of those before. Sorry, several were "buzzed" about only before anyone saw them.

I would also like to start using a buzzsaw on people who regularly write "buzz." (I was going to say except for the pros, but obviously they shd be the first to go.)

I say this as somebody who is a sarcastic jerk: that tumblr is too dickish even for me.

ongoing roundtable:

http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2012/2/1/oscar-symposium-day-1-tinker-tailor-party-guys.html

tinker-tailor-party-guys

but Oscar just awarded two hot messes in a sparring weepie last year.

OK, I'm going to try to remember who these are w/out looking it up.

....

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2012/02/oscar-2012-winner-predictions-supporting-actor/#more-26575

glad I forgot that one

http://bobbyfinger.tumblr.com/post/17122461188

It's more subtle than my excerpt -- he wants Viola Davis to win! -- but I laughed at the first graf of Mark Harris' latestch:

On February 26, we are, I think, likely to see Viola Davis walk to the stage to accept a Best Actress Oscar for playing a maid. It will have been about 26,000 days — is that a lot or a little? — since Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award for her role as Gone With the Wind’s house slave Mammy and tearfully expressed the hope that she would “always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry.” How far we’ve come.

"Faced with the peril of that archetype, Davis did the hardest job of anyone in the Best Actress category: She made the movie better — much better — without playing against it. "

I don't know if this is true because I have yet to watch The Help. But, man he makes me believe this is true. Partly because I've seen the other four and don't think any of them were doing anything remotely close to their best work (except maybe Rooney but no way to know that for sure for another dozen movies).

Is Colin Firth going to award her with the words, “You is kind. You is smart.....”?

She was OK but did not make the film much better, it's too toxic for that. I'd say Davis should rely on the stage for great parts, but hey, August Wilson is dead.

I'd praise Viola Davis with more energy if I hadn't seen her bring exactly the same hard work to shit maid/mom/authority parts many times.

is her best film work in Solaris? I think so.

Slogging thru the live action, animated and doc short categories this year was a bigger chore than usual.

has she played a maid in anything but Far from Heaven? (oh irony, then no irony)

Harris's columns alone validate the existence of Oscars.

There is any question that Davis' best work *isn't* Solaris?

Meanwhile let us take a moment to acknowledge the passing of Damien Bona, co-writer of Inside Oscar. GREAT book, wonderful stuff to read when it first came out in the late eighties:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/movies/damien-bona-creator-of-inside-oscar-dies-at-56.html

yes, that was a fun book

Yeah, that was an especially formative book for 13-year-old jaymc.

I think you became that book at the end of Fahrenheit 451

The most recent edition I read covered the 2000 Oscars.

is anyone going to see the Oscar shorts?

I'm going this weekend I think.

My wife really wants to see the doc shorts, but I scanned the descriptions and they seemed kind of zzzzz.

i've gone prob 6 out of the last 8 years, never regretted it

Do you usually see all three programs?

Yeah, I had the chance to meet Damien once in NY. We had lunch and he sent me a copy of the new edition of Inside Oscar. Also taped a copy of Make Way for Tomorrow (then almost impossible to find) for me. Incredibly kind man in person (sometimes vicious in print). Way too early. :(

usually its just 2 programs?

iirc one year they combined a few docs and a few live action in to one program and all the animated ones into another.

the last few years my local theater has opted not to run the docs i guess?

but yeah i see both usually.

http://theoscarshorts.shorts.tv/about.php

this website is very bad at providing info imo but:

Together with the theatrical run, the nominated short films will be available on iTunes Stores in 54 countries across the globe beginning February 21st.

yeah, I wouldn't be remotely shocked...

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2012/02/oscar-2012-winner-predictions-foreign-language/

I wouldn't be either considering the Academy's history, but I think the screenplay nomination bodes well.

the thing is, the full Academy doesn't vote for Foreign Lang Film, and it was just the writers' branch that nominated the A Separation script.

Oh I get that, but I also think the foreign language voters are swayed by that kind of recognition. This is partly because I imagine them to be a bunch of clueless idiots desperate to look smart and knowledgable and fucking it up every year. I figured the screenwriting nomination would give them a clue as to the right choice. Or maybe they are just arrogant idiots who think all the rest of the world has to offer is brutal but life-affirming films about the holocaust.

i saw the animation and live action shorts-- the docs weren't showing here

the animated program was kind of a slog but still worth seeing, i liked the live action a lot more.

anyway, slant otm:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2012/02/oscar-2012-winner-predictions-short-film-animated/
http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2012/02/oscar-2012-winner-predictions-short-film-live-action/

I wouldn't be either considering the Academy's history, but I think the screenplay nomination bodes well.

Amelie was nominated for five Oscars. Pan's Labyrinth was nominated for six. Neither won foreign-language film.

My wife saw the short docs and predicts Saving Face will win.

btw the animated shorts program has like three or four additional shorts that weren't nominated

I haven't had time to think through just how silly an idea this is.

http://hive.slate.com/hive/fix-the-oscars/article/the-10-year-oscar-re-vote

The real, correct answer for how to immeasurably improve the Oscars is to have live commentary from Danny McBride

Or lots of Foo Fighter/Chris Brown spots.

p sure that Slate column is a whoopee cushion? bcz nobody cares, really, nor should they.

Only if they get shot out of a water cannon and then fed to a pack of angry dogs. xp

I just looked at the Slate thing quickly--when I started to read it, it seemed like it might be at least half-facetious.

if only this were a parody

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/my-oscar-picks-james-lipton/?hpw

are we gonna do ballots? does anyone expect the artist to win a big prize?

Take that, Mr. Lipton!

Rupert Hudsell
Carmel Valley, CA.

George Clooney did not have on flip-flops when he did that
big run, though many people seem to think so. What he
actually had on is boat shoes, sometimes called deck
shoes. (If you're not convinced, watch him put his shoes
back on after talking with his best friends about his wife's
betrayal. He has to use his index finger to act as a shoehorn
to get the shoes back on. Watch more closely, Mr. Lipton.

voters:

94% white
77% male
2% black
Less than 2% Latino
14% people under 50
Median age is 62

http://gawker.com/5886586/

Is this surprising, though? I thought the median age would be even older than that.

It likely used to be. Of course Ernest Borgnine drives the age up.

and eli wallach!

i am kinda surprised by how male it is

Check out the names of the previously nominated (aside from actors).

Office pool has 19/24 categories (all but the shorts and the sound categories).

I'm dithering over costume design and foreign language.

W.E. just won Costume Designers Guild, but it's probably the least seen film of the lot. The two Best Pic contenders are The Artist and Hugo. The latter has more impressive costumes and a three-time winner in the category (Sandy Powell), but Mark Bridges could conceivably ride The Artist's coattails here.

The smart money says A Separation will win foreign, but the most recognizable nominee has rarely won this category in the last decade. So I remain skeptical. The cynic in me says that the Holocaust drama (In Darkness) will win, but I also wouldn't be totally surprised if Monsieur Lazhar did.

That's all reasonable, and Jane Eyre could win costumes btw

Office pool has 19/24 categories (all but the shorts and the sound categories)

Tell your office pool to grow some balls.

kind of pointless unless all cats are included (bcz hey, they're all equally unimportant)

Do you watch the Oscars, Morbs?

almost always. The last few years at a party where it's easy to turn off attention to the TV whenever necessary.

Jane Eyre could win costumes btw

Yeah, that category really feels like anyone's game (except Anonymous).

kind of pointless unless all cats are included (bcz hey, they're all equally unimportant)

To be fair, Sound Editing is the tiebreaker. (I'm voting War Horse.)

And there used to be even fewer categories, but the guy who runs it expanded it last year on the theory that it would be more difficult for me to win.

like you're not going to read all the handicapping on the 'minor' categories, right?

so what old stars are going to be presenters and save the show from total death this year?

Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams (who are apparently good friends!) are musical producers for the ceremony this year:
http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/oscars/la-ca-oscars-music-20120224,0,2872134.story

My final predix:

PICTURE: The Artist
DIRECTOR: Michel Hazanavicius
ACTOR: Jean Dujardin
ACTRESS: Viola Davis
SUPP ACTOR: Christopher Plummer
SUPP ACTRESS: Octavia Spencer
ORIG SCREENPLAY: Midnight in Paris
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Descendants
FOREIGN LANGUAGE: A Separation
ANIMATED FEATURE: Rango
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Paradise Lost 3
ART DIRECTION: Hugo
CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Tree of Life
COSTUME: Hugo
MAKEUP: The Iron Lady
EDITING: The Artist
VISUAL EFFECTS: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
SCORE: The Artist
SONG: "Man or Muppet"
SOUND EDITING: War Horse
SOUND MIXING: Hugo
ANIMATED SHORT: Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Lessmore
LIVE-ACTION SHORT: Tuba Atlantic
DOC SHORT: Saving Face

The Artist probably will win best score, but what a bullshit, unearned victory.

it does have an okay score, but all anyone remembers is the Vertigo lift.

Yeah, but I totally thought "Man this score just got really good" before I realized it was the Vertigo swipe.

That's what makes it so horrible, though. It was so jarring to go from the score to the Vertigo score. Why do it? It was dumb.

No, I agree. And what I'm saying is the Herrmann makes the Bource pale in comparison.

I agree with that, as well. It was just an odd choice.

No one else saw it, but "A Cat In Paris" should win best animated feature.

I realize A Separation will win, but I do hope Bullhead gets some attention. Mathias Schoenaerts is ROWR and a great actor. lol

no, A Separation is very much unpredictable; foreign films that have been acclaimed and fairly well distributed do not automatically equal victors.

Mathias Schoenaerts is ROWR

Yeah, he's def the flavor of the month.

Yeah, in the end I went with A Separation mostly because I couldn't identify an obvious alternate. Plus, it seems less risky, betting-wise.

(I guess I want to believe that Oscar voters are by now aware of their reputation for lazily casting votes for Holocaust films, but who knows.)

kind of sad but as of right now I could not name a single best pic nom, that is how little I have been paying attention

I did scroll up and see the artist on jaymc's ballot so I'm guessing that was nommed

Don't worry, obsessively following the Oscars is probably sadder, ultimately.

really E3, they are the most irrelevant honors next to the Nobel Peace Prize

Assuming Plummer wins, here would be the last three supporting actor winners:

Christopher Plummer
Christian Bale
Christoph Waltz

next, that guy who played McLovin

but the guy who runs it expanded it last year on the theory that it would be more difficult for me to win.

― Ascot Fitzgerald (jaymc), Thursday, February 23, 2012 9:46 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lol

Chris Cooper for 2012?

jaymc's xls includes the oscar results before they're revealed.

Chris Cooper for 2012?

Well, Chris Cooper for 2002, so four of the last ten.

Only seen Meh-neyball of the noms.

Mathias Schoenaerts is ROWR

Yeah, he's def the flavor of the month.

??? "Nobody" has seen this film. Did he do a US photo shoot?

Flavor among the termite gays, I mean.

And the totally awesome women, too, I mean.

k, I don't even remember him from Black Book. He is a tasty morsel.

decent stream for tonight for the Britishers anyone? apparantly it's on some Sky channel over here too.

get out the ferrero rocher and the chilean cabernet sauvignon, everyone. E! has been showing their pre-red carpet show for 4 hours now and its counting down...to the red carpet. then you'll get the ABC red carpet at 7 (EST) so come one everyone.

also a little Artist-bashing, Hugo-hocking piece from Mubi.

christ The Artist is gonna win everything :/

'on the red carpet' live stream right here whatever that is.
the .. preamble to the preamble i guess.
http://www.ontheredcarpet.com/livevideo?id=8551183

EMPIRE mag just tweeted this, it's brilliant
http://www.empireonline.com/features/secrets-of-oscar-night/p4

".. the whole night was full of people getting so pissed off that they didn’t win! People are so competitive. When each film wins, you know that that’s four films that have lost, and more importantly, you have agents and PR people and accountants and managers and your partner and your mum and dad and friends have come to see you win an Oscar, and when you don’t win, by the end of the evening, 80 per cent of the audience is really pissed off."

I thought I was going to be working today but there was a reprieve so now I am going to watch this shit

is it streaming?

http://www.vipbox.tv/watch/36079/1/the-oscars-live-stream-online.html

So was Seacrest getting trashed by Baron Cohen worth it?

Thanks, piscex! Is this just the red carpet or is it the whole thing

whole thing i.. think. seems to be flippin btw E! and Sky though but i can handle that. very HQ for a stream. hope it lasts.

Does this ceremony deserve its own thread?

love tina fey's look

holy shit Nick Nole is sloshed

yeah just switched on in time to see the Baron Cohen incident. Seacrest handled it better than, say James Corden would have. i mean can you *imagine*.

nolte owned that british chick

actual red carpet stream http://www.livestream.com/theoscars

who's Clooney's missus?

Brad's hair has Kalifornia retro style.

Stacy Keibler. Xpost

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m010bwkibM1qzzpi4o1_400.gif

haha

i really like this Seacrest fella!

i'm not really paying attention but ugh was that really billy crystal in blackface?

great intro.. less so teh monologue.

the intro was brutal